The American brewing industry is such a shitshow these days that I sometimes forget there’s a vast world of international drinkers out there who have barely reached adolescence in their craft brewing careers. But such rank chauvinism stops today, reader, because today, we turn our collective Western gaze eastward. Over there, past Hawaii, the international date line, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, lies a nation of 1.4 billion people, the majority of whom are over legal drinking age. China’s thirst for American craft beer hasn’t yet peaked (unlike Americans’ own) and its drinkers’ interest is piqued.
My own interest in the current state of Sino-American IPA relations was piqued by a recent report from the market-research firm IWSR, which noted that after the past few years of pandemic-related challenges, Chinese drinkers were returning to premium-price-point beers. “China’s higher-end beer market also returned to growth in [the first half of] 2023 vs 2022, boosted by strong performances from local brands, and from international products in the reopening on-premise.”
Higher-end international products, you say? With American demand posting small but concerning year-over-year declines as omnibibulous domestic drinkers quench their boredom with all manner of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, the idea that U.S. craft brewers have over 500 million potential customers just a hop, skip, and a two-week container-ship ride away is tantalizing to consider. Some already have.
“It’s consistently a top-five market for us,” says Steve Parr, the Export Development Program (EDP) manager at the Brewers Association. U.S. craft brewers (as
